5 reasons why Ireland is Europe’s data centre hub

7 Nov 2016486 Shares

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Rachel Clynes from Interxion, a company with data centres across Europe, delves into the trend of locating data centres in Ireland.

The future is very bright for data centres in Ireland and Europe. As the data centre industry in Ireland continues to thrive, more and more companies are looking for connectivity and security, and are feeling an increased demand in the need to host their digital assets.

1. The Irish economy

Ireland in recent years has had a fast-growing economy. This has led to an increased demand for hosting. With more multinationals developing a presence in Ireland, an evolving start-up community and potential opportunities falling out of Brexit, the economy looks set to continue to grow.

Over the past 10 years, Ireland has attracted a high number of cloud and data companies and they’ve developed into a hub for overseas companies looking to host their digital assets in Europe.

Also, Ireland is an open economy which is supported by its corporate tax rate of 12.5pc – lower than its European competitors.

2. Ireland’s location

With its location in the path of global connectivity between America and Europe, Ireland is perfectly positioned to provide data centres access, or to link data centres to both American and European countries.

Ireland is fortunate to be placed right in the heart of the trading world. It is located on the gateway to the European market of more than 500m people.

Facebook, Apple and Google have all decided to invest in Ireland. One of the main reasons behind this was the climate, which allows them save on equipment-cooling costs. The computer servers running in these data centres create a huge amount of heat. By locating in Ireland, the Irish weather is a natural and inexpensive way of cooling these computers down.

3. Educated workforce

Ireland’s young, hungry and well-educated workforce is another major reason for large multinational organisations choosing Ireland as their preferred location. Ireland’s international, experienced, technology-savvy, multi-skilled and multilingual workforce is a major draw for international companies.

With 48pc of the Irish population aged between 25 and 34 holding a third-level qualification, and Ireland been named among the top 10 best-educated countries in the world, it is the ideal location with the population to meet the job specifications. In fact, the ICT sector in Ireland is currently employing over 90,000 people.

4. Connectivity

Ireland is one of the best-connected countries worldwide. It offers a choice of secure connectivity routes to Europe and around the globe. Ireland even has 11 subsea cables that connect to the UK [as well as] excellent broadband services.

5. Host in Ireland

Host in Ireland provides data-hosting companies and stakeholders the opportunity to work together as an industry, to promote the benefits of hosting digital assets in Ireland. Host in Ireland looks to change and shape global industry perceptions relating to Ireland’s digital asset hosting ecosystem, by providing timely and accurate information that gives an insight into the industry.

As a business, Interxion’s participation in Host in Ireland is an ideal partnership, as [the latter] work to amplify Ireland as an ideal location for hosting US digital assets, and to educate the US market about the hosting opportunities in Ireland.

Host in Ireland is sustained by the ‘5 Ps’: policy, people, pedigree, pipes and power. Ireland’s integration of these five key elements provides a structured foundation for companies of all sizes and markets.

The future is bright

Ireland’s growing reputation has attracted significant investment especially from US-based firms and is currently home to over 1,000 multinational companies.

At Interxion, we believe that the future is bright for data centres in Ireland and Europe. As mentioned above, Ireland is the perfect location for data centres. This country can provide all the necessary tools for a data service provider; including a strong growing economy, a well-educated workforce, a location between Europe and America, and connectivity channels with the rest of the world – to name but a few.